The winners of the 2014 Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Awards were announced today at Aldergrove Public School in Markham, Ontario.

Veteran Montreal author Anne Villeneuve was honoured in the picture book category for Loula Is Leaving for Africa (Kids Can Press), while Teresa Toten’s much lauded The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B (Doubleday Canada) – already the recipient of the 2013 Governor General’s Literary Award for children’s literature (text) – won in the young adult/middle reader category.

The winners were selected by two five-member juries comprised of Aldergrove students in Grades 3-4 (picture book) and Grades 7-8 (YA/MG). The awards, presented annually in recognition of excellence in writing and illustration in English-language Canadian children’s literature, each come with a cash prize of $6,000, administered by the Ontario Arts Foundation.